Parrish Alford's column this morning...

[Liverpooldawg]

is on how difficult Tunsil would be to replace. Is that a sign he will be back for Bama? My guess is yes.

[BulldogBear]

I figure they're gonna sit him the first two weeks and hope that will help when the hammer falls. Play him against Bama and roll dice. In their mind, it's not about ethics, whether or not that applies I'm this case. Give yourself best chance to beat Bama on field and hope for the best from NCAA. Of course I would think it's kind of an indictment of the rest of your guys if you're basically saying you dont have a chance to win without him.

I thought Kelly proved he's the best QB ever. Who needs LT?***

[dogshiek]

Living on NCAA time. Squirming and worming!

[Ifyouonlyknew]

No inside info but if he hasn't been cleared by the Bama game I just can't see them taking that chance on playing him. I see a lot of people saying they will just take their chance & vacate wins if he's ineligible. If they play him & he proves to be ineligible vacated wins will be the least of their worries. They would basically be spitting in the eyes of the NCAA & that's where the trouble would be & the hammer would come down harder especially with 2 of their other sports (women's track & bball) already on probation.

[Liverpooldawg]

The other possibility is they are, through the beat writer, pre-fabbing an excuse if/when they lose to Bama without him.

[jumbo]

The other possibility is they are, through the beat writer, pre-fabbing an excuse if/when they lose to Bama without him.



exactly. they are starting the PR spin. lower those expectations so losing is acceptable.

[Martianlander]

Got it from a very good source in Oxford that it is the NCAA that is making Tunsil sit.

Also in Alford's article this morning there was a quote about Taylor, the guy taking Tunsil's place, that he was one of the most athletic lineman senior Fahn Cooper has ever been around. So that settles it-no drop off-maybe better****

[Behrdawg]

He will play Bama unless the NCAA says "no".

[Dawg-gone-dawgs]

He will play Bama unless the NCAA says "no"..

[Johnson85]

No inside info but if he hasn't been cleared by the Bama game I just can't see them taking that chance on playing him. I see a lot of people saying they will just take their chance & vacate wins if he's ineligible. If they play him & he proves to be ineligible vacated wins will be the least of their worries. They would basically be spitting in the eyes of the NCAA & that's where the trouble would be & the hammer would come down harder especially with 2 of their other sports (women's track & bball) already on probation.

This is where I'm leaning. Not only is it a risk, there's not a real high reward. They aren't winning the national championship, but even if they were, there is a lot of time between now and the playoffs, so they'd likely be declared ineligible before they even got to play a playoff game. So playing him is just going to screw up what will still be a decent year without him. And longer term, while this is a big year for them with several players likely decamping for the NFL, they are still in a good spot compared to their historical tradition. Why screw things up going forward when you are likely at worst talking about a difference between a 9 win season and a 6 win season. Much better to take the hit now than to have one 9 win season and invite probation that would make it hard to consistently hit 6 wins going forward.